


We accept the love we think we deserve

by bestaceinspace



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-26
Updated: 2013-06-26
Packaged: 2017-12-16 05:06:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/858129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bestaceinspace/pseuds/bestaceinspace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I love you”, Steve said, and he had lost count of how many times he let the words slip from his mouth without thinking about it first. The thing is, though, that he didn’t have to give it much thought. He was sure of it and, maybe, someday, Tony would truly believe in it so he could say back the love Steve felt for him. “You know that, right?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	We accept the love we think we deserve

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, the title is from the book 'the perks of being a wallflower' ;)

One day, after coming home from a long three months journey, Steve didn’t go to his bedroom as he would always do when he was too tired for anything. Tony knew. He heard the footsteps coming closer to his door. He saw a shadow and, to his surprise, he felt a smell. It was weird and new to him to have recognized someone that easily. Tony had never been good with faces and names, and, most of the time, people found it rude, but the truth was it wasn’t his fault. That image of Steve, though, in almost complete darkness, was pretty clear to him. That person’s face and name was totally glued to his mind already, he couldn’t deny it anymore.

“Steve, what are you doing?” He asked then, seeing that the other man had stopped halfway through the door, looking anxiously inside the room. Tony felt Steve’s eyes on him as the soldier stepped closer and closer until he was beside Tony’s bed.

“Is it okay for me to sleep here?” Steve asked. Tony noticed it was a question Steve was holding back for some time.

“You never had to ask for permission to get into my bed”, Tony joked, smiling at him. Steve sighed and, seeing that there was no problem, he laid down beside Tony. The billionaire soon felt the bigger man’s arms around him, protective as Steve always was. Passionate as he always was.

“Did something happen?” Tony asked, after a couple minutes of silence. He felt relaxed to hear Steve breathing against his skin, but the worry was too much for him to just let go and pretend he didn’t care. He did care, in his own way. He did love Steve, in his own complicated and maybe messed up way, but the feeling had always been there and had never left Tony’s mind. Maybe he just needed more time to let what he felt for Steve reach his heart, whatever that meant.

“No”, Steve answered, moving nervously against Tony.

“Are you hurt?’” Tony tried asking. He couldn’t really see Steve in the dark, but he had a bad feeling. He was kind of scared by the way Steve was acting, to tell the truth. Also, there was the fact Tony didn’t like silence. It reveals things, and, sometimes, these things are nothing we are prepared for.

“I’m okay, Tony, don’t worry”, Steve explained quickly. “I just didn’t see the point of going to my bed while you are here, and I had been missing you since the day I left so—“

Steve just let the words flow and hung in the air. Tony didn’t know what to say after that. Steve was the one who always had the perfect words to say, while Tony was just a mess of things he didn’t know how to explain in words. He was great with numbers and how systems work, that was a fact, but he was terrible when it came to break the code of a good and functional relationship between two people.

“It has been a long time, huh”, Tony said then, to what Steve responded with a ‘yeah’ and a kiss on Tony’s neck.

“Well”, Tony tried, after a few moments, “I’m glad you are back”.

Steve smiled against his skin, Tony felt it, and he couldn’t deny it was pretty good having Steve’s arms around him again and hearing his voice close to his ear. Maybe is how people say: ‘you realize how much things are important when you lose them.’

Well, Steve was not a thing, and Tony had not lost him (yet, he added, mentally), God knows how, but he was too damn important for Tony to just lie to himself that he didn’t miss Steve, apparently as much as Steve missed him.

“Me too”, Steve’s words brought him back to reality. Steve was there and, as all the clues lead to it, Steve was his. The first person the soldier thought about seeing again after coming back home was Tony. Maybe because Steve thought about Tony as his home, much more than just a lover or whatever they were to each other. And it didn’t matter, anyway, that they hadn’t discussed yet on how to call it. It was something and that something was important, Tony was starting to completely get that, Steve felt it, and, sometime, hopefully, soon, Tony’d stop being such a dork and admit too what he felt for Steve. Because it was in his eyes when Steve turned Tony so he would face Steve looking down at him. Because it was in the touch of his hands holding Steve’s shirt tight between his fingers so Steve couldn’t fight back when Tony finally took it off to feel the blonds’ skin against his own. Because it was on the way Tony’s mouth moved against Steve’s, almost angry with him for taking too long to be back.

“I love you”, Steve said, and he had lost count of how many times he let the words slip from his mouth without thinking about it first. The thing is, though, that he didn’t have to give it much thought. He was sure of it and, maybe, someday, Tony would truly believe in it so he could say back the love Steve felt for him. “You know that, right?”

“I know”, Tony answered, shaking his head before closing his eyes again for another kiss. Steve smiled because it was enough, for now. Tony accepted the words, and he was understanding and accepting that he was worth loving and that he should give himself more value. With that, Steve was finally getting closer to what he had always been waiting for.

Steve had always loved Tony, but Tony didn’t love him (self).

(Yet, Steve added, mentally).


End file.
